5 Iraqi Men arrested for ‘horrific’ Colorado Springs rape

by Will C. Holden//COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Colorado Springs arrested five Iraqi men Tuesday in connection with what police are calling a “rare” and “horrific” sexual assault.

Colorado Springs Lt. Howard Black told FOX21 Colorado Springs that the woman police believe the men sexually assaulted at the Wildridge Apartments suffered from injuries that could have been life-threatening.

“I have been a police officer for a lot of years,” Black said. “When I look at the injuries, this is one of the more severe sexual assault cases I have been a part of and investigated.”

All five men are are from Iraq and living in the U.S. legally as permanent residents. All five are in their 20s. If convicted, there is a possibility they could be deported.

Police said the sexual assault occurred on July 21, and started when an elderly woman who works nights responded to two groups of men appearing to be on the brink of a fight at around 1:30 a.m. The woman, who was checking her mail at the time, was able to successfully defuse the fight. Afterwards, one of the men involved in the altercation invited her back to his apartment.

At the apartment, the woman drank “what she believed to be lemonade” with four men in their 20s, according to the report. She cannot recall anything after that.

According to police, doctors at Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs, where the woman was later admitted, said she suffered from internal injuries that appeared to be caused by blunt force trauma. When police arrived on scene of the apartment, they found blood splattered on the walls.

According to the Colorado Springs Gazette, Ramadon, one of the men accused of the sexual assault, was featured in “A Soldier’s Promise,” a 2009 combat memoir penned by Army First Sgt. Daniel Hendrex about the time he spent deployed in the Iraqi town of Husaybah.

Hendrex described helping Ramadon in his effort to immigrate to the U.S. in exchange for vital information the youngster — 14 at the time — provided Hendrex’s unit about local insurgents.